The present invention relates generally to discounting and promotion of goods and services to consumers, and, more particularly, to the electronic distribution of promotions, such as discounts, rebates and special prices for goods and services.
Heretofore, consumer discounts on specific goods or services have been in the form of physical tokens or coupons by which a consumer can obtain a discount on the price of a good or a service by redeeming the token or coupon. For instance, paper coupons are often distributed with newspapers, or by blanket mailing to residents of a neighborhood or region. More recent forms of coupon distribution have attempted to better target the potential purchasers of particular items. For example, coupons are printed on the back of store purchase receipts, such as those at supermarkets, so that the coupons target those who actively shop. Another form of coupon distribution targets the purchasers of particular items. When a sale of a particular item is entered on a Universal Product Code (UPC) reader at a store, such as a supermarket, a coupon for the same item or family of items may be created for the purchaser to ensure brand loyalty. Alternatively, the coupon may be for a competing brand to encourage “brand-switching.”
Another promotion incentive to consumers is to offer special pricing on items. This is attractive to the retailer since the retailer can receive some economic benefit from the special pricing. Benefit to the manufacturer may also accrue, but only after consideration of the retailer's benefit. Though the profit may be less for the sale of the item, the retailer might receive repeat business, for example, from a satisfied customer. In the case of manufacturer coupons, the retailer receives no direct economic benefit. The retailer is reimbursed the face value of a redeemed coupon plus a small fee to compensate for the costs of processing the coupon and for advancing the cash value on the coupon to the consumer.
Ideally, a database of all consumers' transactions would allow the precise targeting of advertisements, discounts, or special prices, being a form of advertisement, to individual consumers. The effectiveness of consumer targeting would be maximized so that promotion money is spent where it is effective and not spent when it is ineffective. To that end, producers and retailers have used emerging technologies to identify consumers and their purchasing interests. Hence, much of the modern promotion efforts have been directed as much toward gathering consumer information, as well as encouraging the purchase of specific items. Surveys using modem polling techniques have helped create such consumer databases, and computers have been used to correlate buying patterns of customers through store loyalty cards, for example. However, such consumer identification remains elusive and expensive, and the targeting of consumers remains difficult and costly.
Up to now, promotion efforts have required the consumer to take a specific action to enable his or her discounts on a product or service. For instance, the consumer is required to bring in a paper coupon or token for redemption. In a modern supermarket, the consumer must make one or more selections at a kiosk or web site, bring in a paper coupon or token, or make a specific purchase that triggers a coupon or token to be printed or otherwise issued to enable his discount at the checkout counter. In contrast, the present invention inverts the promotion via predetermination without explicit selection so as to invite more participation from the consumer. As a result, the consumer's response to the incentive contributes more consumer information.